ABSTRACT

The task of writing an appreciation of Aunt Mary fell not to Christabel but to Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence: Mrs. Clarke is the first woman-martyr who has gone to death for the cause. Christabel and Adela accompanied their grieving mother to Aunt Mary’s funeral, Una and Joan Dugdale being among the small band of suffragette mourners. The years of poor health and hard work, and the death of Harry and now Aunt Mary, brought Adela to breaking point. She tried to resign from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) but Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence persuaded her to stay on for what Adela described as ‘another miserable year’. The deaths of two suffragettes as a consequent of violence suffered at the hands of the police had strengthened Christabel’s resolve, and she quickly became absorbed in her WSPU work again. Christabel was ever the stoic about such matters.